Jumbo Blimp Jumbo

Ugh.  Mondays.  Plus, today really should be a public holiday.  It really should, and I'm not just saying that 'cause I fancy a holiday.  Waitangi Day (which is kind of like Noo Ziland's national day, fraught as it tends to be with racial tensions and politiking) was on Sunday, so happy birthday to my buddy Stephanie and to Bob Marley also.  Anyway, we're currently in a bit of a pickle, because this is the second year that some of our public holidays will fall on weekends.  We only get eleven public holidays here anyway, so we guard them preciously.  Our Prime Mininster reckons he's going to "think" about Monday-ising them, not that it's just his decision, and he should really know what all the workers of New Zealand want him to do.  If he doesn't he's an even bigger moron than I thought. 

But I digress.  Today did have it's uplifting elements.  And that was that we were having a shared morning tea at work (you'll be beginning to think that all us toilers at the information coalface ever do is eat morning tea) to welcome back a returning staff member.   Honestly, I did eclairs because they were the easiest think that I could think of to do.  Choux pastry?  Simple.  Seriously, the hardest thing about making them is figuring out how much 'six tablespoons of butter' is in grams... some stupid woman (me) wrote that measurement into her recipe book, and I'm stuck with it now.



Parle vous Francais, mon petit dessert?

Time to Say Goodbye

Oh, muffins... where have you been all my life?  I'm on a real muffin kick at the moment, if I'd known how flamin' simple they are, I'd have started makin' the darn things sooner.  Well, maybe.  We all know that I'm a woman who just loves to make life hard for herself.  But still.  The sentiment is there.

So the puppies that I've just made are cream cheese, smoked salmon and chive mini-muffins.  How hoity-toity can you get?  Yes, they are pretty ritzy, but honestly, someone who had mislaid some of their mental picnic could make these without much bother.  There are only two pitfalls with these muffins - they are a tad on the expensive side to make (though if you get the smoked salmon pieces, you know, the ripped up shready stuff, it's not too bad), and they are almost irresistable; but resist!  I implore you!  Take it from one who knows, all you will end up with is a burnt roof-of-the-mouth and a broken heart.  Well, maybe not that last one.

Um, in other news, Mark Lanegan is in town tonight, which I totally wish that I could go to, but being the Nana that I am, one thing per night is about my limit.  The muffins are coming with me to a farewell shindig for a work buddy of mine tonight.  In order to not cause too much kerfuffle for people, its one of those 'clear out your booze cabinet' type affairs - everyone brings the mysterious bottles that lurk in the back of the cabinet with a centimeter or so of liquid at the bottom and we make them into glorious cocktails.  At least, that is the idea.  Getting back to the original topic, if you don't know who Mark Lanegan is, you need to go to the Library (or the indie record store, or itunes if you must) and get the Screaming Trees album Dust.  It is an amazing album, and I'm sure that you'll love it.  What am I saying, I don't know if you'll love it, but it's always good to listen to some new shit once in a while.

This [cake] is bananas, B!A!N!A!N!A!S!

Apologies to Ms Stefani, but look at this, would you?

Pretty foxy huh?  You'd never guess they were *gasp* banana flavoured.  I don't know if you can see from there, but I even did teensy little stamen things on the flowers (spent a looong time picking out yellows out of the hundreds and thousands mixture... boy, do I suffer for my art).  Not that I brag or anything, you understand... I'm just particularily proud of the fact that I managed to hold my gorge for an hour and a half while I was baking these.

Downward Spiral

I don't think they have a scale for laziness, but I feel like I should be pretty high up there if they ever do get around to making one. For instance, I keep getting the urge to bake for the blog, and then baking and not taking any pictures of the darn things that I make. Perhaps it's got something to do with the fact that my camera is being dopey at the moment... or it could just be the myriad other things that I have to do.  Such as holding our frisky sofa down...

Anyway, I remembered an awesome thing that I think that I read in one of Nigella Lawson's books once upon a time, which was lucky for me because I was fresh out of ideas for a shared morning tea that we were having at my work.  I've gone right off the cupcake thing, since that's what everyone expects from me now, and as awesome as they are to make, they're always too sweet for me.  In my experience, people get suspicious if you don't eat your own baking.